Mississippi Finally Ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, Banning Slavery

No, that’s not a historical headline from the late 1800′s you just read. Better late than never, Mississippi became the last state (of the 36 in the country at the time) to ratify the thirteenth amendment, which abolishes slavery.

The amendment was officially passed by the nation on December 6, 1865, after Georgia became the 27th state to ratify it.

Mississippi’s final push came this year after a medical professor at Ole Miss, Dr. Ranjan Batra, saw Steven Spielberg‘s Oscar-nominated film Lincoln, which documents in great detail the sixteenth president’s efforts to pass the law. Afterwards, Dr. Batra went home and researched the amendment, only to discover that Mississippi had never officially ratified it due to a clerical error.

Both houses of the legislature passed the amendment in 1995 (still the last state to do so), but the authorities never officially notified the National Archives.

Dr. Batra told friends and colleagues, who made a few phone calls, and soon had the state working to correct the oversight.

Mississippi finally ratifies abolition thanks to some Jewish guys in Hollywood and a naturalized Indian immigrant? I’m not sure what that says about the state of the union, but I hope it’s good. What do you think?

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